volsrock":1yurjk3v said:
Id say habitat is not the prob in wayne co !!! thousands of acres of uninhabited land!!!!
I'd say I don't know what are the most significant problems in Wayne Co.,
but "Uninhabited" does not equate to good year-round turkey habitat.
The Smoky Mountain National Park is TN's largest block of "uninhabited" land
but is also may be our largest block of poor habitat for wild turkey & deer.
They exist there, but I suspect in much lower numbers than compared to Wayne Co.
Turkeys have a lot going against them, but, imo, one of the things they need to thrive is great habitat diversity within relatively small areas (less than a square mile).
They need a diverse, year-round food supply, not just periodic acorns, and not just the barren nothing of many pine stands.
They also need great nesting cover, lots of it, for good reproduction.
Some of our most (human) uninhabited areas provide the least of what's needed most.
But even with ideal year-round food supply habitat, protective cover from predators, and great nesting habitat,
turkeys may not thrive due to so many other factors going against them.
And, these factors can be hard to isolate, since they can vary so much from one area to the next,
then from one year to the next (such as mast acorn failure, or too much rain one year vs. another, etc.)
not to mention varying localized factors such as poaching and more or less hunting.
Even a single weather event, such as a freezing rain in January, followed by very low sub-freezing temperatures the next day or so
can contribute to much greater mortality in a localized area.
